The world’s biggest annual music instrument, equipment and technology trade show is about to get significantly bigger.

To be held Thursday through Sunday at the Anaheim Convention Center, this year’s members-only NAMM Show — short for the Carlsbad-based National Association of Music Merchants — will see the 117-year-old event expand in both size and scope.

The massive trade show will even sound different, thanks to a savvy reconfiguration of its expanded layout into what NAMM President and CEO Joe Lamond describes as complementary, Manhattan-inspired “musical neighborhoods.”

This growth stems from the fact the 2018 edition of the nonprofit NAMM Show is the first to be held since the September opening of the Anaheim Convention Center’s new ACC North Building.

Constructed at a cost of $190 million, the two-story, 200,000-square-foot building can accommodate up to 22,000 people. It increases the Anaheim facility’s total size to 1.8 million square feet, the largest of any convention center on the West Coast.

This growth is welcomed by the NAMM Show, which serves as a mass gathering of the tribes for the $17 billion a year global industry it serves. (U.S. sales last year were $7.15 billion, an increase of .09 percent over 2015. Figures for 2017 will be released in April.)

Last year’s NAMM Show drew nearly 1,800 exhibiting companies, including San Diego County-based powerhouses Taylor Guitars and Deering Banjos, and smaller area companies, such as the two-person OZZtosh LUMA Guitars.

“Our registration has jumped … over last year, from 102,000 to 106,773,” Lamond said. He describes the 2018 NAMM Show as “Crossroads 2.0,” a plan that unites the full spectrum of music, sound and event technology.

Photo by John Gastaldo

Cymbals and drums ring out each year at the NAMM Show in Anaheim.

Cymbals and drums ring out each year at the NAMM Show in Anaheim. (Photo by John Gastaldo)

Drumming up record growth

The former drummer in the band Tommy Tutone and a onetime tour manager for Todd Rundgren, Lamond proudly noted that last year’s NAMM Show featured 7,000 brands from a record 1,779 exhibiting companies. It drew nearly 18,000 foreign member registrants from 125 countries — up 13 percent from 2016 — and 84,000 from the United States.

“We’ll blow through almost every one of those numbers this year,” Lamond said. “And the number of our NAMM education classes, which are a very important part of the show each year, will grow from 200 last year to 600 this year. We’re swinging away!”

Eager to take advantage of the Anaheim Convention Center’s first expansion since 2000, the NAMM Show is incorporating several other annual trade shows and symposiums this year that were previously held as stand-alone events in other locales.

These include the 70-year-old Audio Engineering Society (which has 12,000 members), the 30-year-old Entertainment Services and Technology Association and the 17-year-old Parnelli Awards, which honor leading professionals in the live-events industry. The synergy between these organizations and NAMM should make give this year’s event greater impact than ever.

Intriguingly, the expansion and broadening of the NAMM Show mirrors the shifting landscape of the music world at large. It’s a world that has seen live performances become increasingly more lucrative, as revenues from audio recordings continue to decline for most artists not named Adele, Taylor Swift or Beyoncé.

“We knew we were getting a new hall, so we’ve been giving a lot of thought to how we take this opportunity to expand — and to expand our view of the entire music industry — as well as to the dynamic of the show itself,” said Lamond, who has headed NAMM since 2001.

“The areas we saw for expansion were live events and the growing expectations people have for them, whether it’s stagecraft, audio, lighting or technology at a concert hall or stadium, or a church, wedding or school auditorium. Live performance has become more important than ever and my opinion is that it’s a great evolution. Music is meant to be experienced live — it’s a communal activity. The fact that touring is so popular has spurred a lot of innovation, because expectations have risen and people want to have a great multi-sensory experience.”

Photo courtesy of NAMM

Stevie Wonder receives an award from NAMM President and CEO Joe Lamond at the 2012 NAMM Show in Anaheim.

Stevie Wonder receives an award from NAMM President and CEO Joe Lamond at the 2012 NAMM Show in Anaheim. (Photo courtesy of NAMM)

Global reach

“We have a significant number of dealers that are now offering full-service rentals and concert-production staffing, in addition to retail products,” Sumner said.

“The NAMM Show covers everything in the music products industry. It’s really the marketplace for the world and that global reach is really important for us. We get retailers at NAMM from Europe, Japan, China and all over. And customers from around the world can go online and see what’s debuting at NAMM. Yamaha launches about 200 new products a year, and we’re launching over 90 of them at NAMM.”

In previous years, Yamaha has hosted invitation-only concerts at the NAMM Show by such legends as Stevie Wonder and Elton John.

This year, Yamaha will open up its annual Friday concert to NAMM attendees at large and hold it on the convention center’s sprawling outdoor concourse, which can accommodate an estimated 15,000 people. (Sumner declined to name this year’s headliner, preferring to keep it a surprise.)

Also on Friday, the Women’s International Music Network will host the sixth annual 2018 She Rocks Awards as part of the NAMM Show. To be held at the Anaheim House of Blues, the event will honor nearly 20 people, including Pat Benatar, Melissa Etheridge, the band Fanny, Exene Cervenka of X and Katie Pierson and Cindy Wilson of The B-52’s.

On Saturday, the Les Paul Innovation Award will be presented to singer-songwriter Jackson Browne as part of the 33rd annual NAMM Tec Awards, a paid ticketed event open to the public. Browne will be honored alongside his former backing band, the all-star group known simply as The Section.

And then there are Friday’s 2018 Parnelli Awards, an event NAMM’s Lamond described as “the Academy Awards” of the concert touring industry.

“Ultimately,” he said, “we want to have a robust convention center floor, lots of educational and networking opportunities, and fun events.”

The increase in size will enable Lamond and his staff to configure the show into a series of “little neighborhoods” of like companies. There will be ample public meeting places, food options and a more logical flow from one area to another.

“We’ll be able to reduce sound on the convention floor by making it more business-conducive,” Lamond said. “Instead of the ‘neighborhoods’ being mixed, with a drum manufacturer next to a flute manufacturer, they’ll be more in their own areas. We’ve hung more sound-reducing materials in the ceiling and even the signage this year is designed to be sound-reducing.”

He chuckled, then added: “The challenge for us has always been: ‘How do we attract the right audience, the right balance of buyers, sellers and professional music practitioners?’ The NAMM Show is a private trade event, not a public event. So our members have an allotment of free badges and attendance is in their hands, which is as it should be.

“People at NAMM are music educators, manufacturers, retailers, software programmers, recording engineers and more. What ties it together is we all have a passion for music and have chosen it as our path in life.”